In case you haven’t heard, Orson Scott Card, a writer I like and admire, is being targeted by a sort of self-appointed House Un-Homosexual Activities Committee, which has succeeded in pressuring DC Comics to drop Card’s contribution from an upcoming Superman anthology.

Card’s views on sexuality, whether or not you happen to agree with them, are reasonable, humane, and — until approximately five minutes ago — thoroughly mainstream. The attempt to hound him out of the job market because of them is evil.

I’m aware that the people at DC aren’t the real villains here, that they’re “just following orders” from the McCarthyite canaille. Nevertheless, you can’t boycott a mob; and DC, as the brand that represents Superman, does have something of an obligation to stand for truth, justice, and the American way. I am therefore boycotting the company (I don’t read comic books anyway, but I had been planning to see the upcoming Man of Steel movie; not anymore) and encourage others to do the same.

6 responses to “Support Card; boycott Superman”

You realize of course that Card’s position is anti-gay-rights, not for equality of human rights. I realize that you were brought up as a Mormon, but I find this revelation somewhat surprising. Or is that you simply find any attempt to superimpose any position as the status quo unacceptable?

As for whether or not gay marriage will destroy Western Civilization, I agree completely that it will, but I don’t view this as a negative feature. Five or ten years from now, when gay marriage is fully integrated into Western Civilization, I predict that many young men and women will marry into non-sexual marriages with their best friends of the same sex — and the birthrate will plummet. There will still be babies being born, but much less so by accident. Write that down somewhere and check it around 2020.

You will have noticed that my allusions are all to Joe McCarthy, not to Sodom and Gomorrah. I’m not particularly “anti-gay.” Homosexual behavior is a vice, of course, but not a terribly serious one; and a great many thoroughly decent people are so constituted that they find it very hard to avoid. I think an attitude of broad-minded tolerance is appropriate. Unfortunately, it’s not human nature to march in the streets demanding broad-minded tolerance for one’s relatively minor vices — so attempts to fight back against the mean-spirited demonization of homosexuals have regrettably but predictably devolved into the grotesqueries of “gay pride.”

What I object to in the blacklisting of Mr. Card is the message that someone who holds the opinions he does — that is, normal, reasoned, humane opinions which have been taken for granted by nearly everyone for centuries — should be made unemployable. Note that they are not objecting to the Superman story he wrote, which is not in any way an “anti-gay” story. No, they are objecting to the fact that anyone anywhere is giving Mr. Card a job of any kind. In effect, they want to use economic sanctions to force him to recant his supposedly heretical opinions. They’re trying to Watson him. This is not “standing up for your rights”; it is, to borrow another buzzword from the movement, bullying.

Well, i’m so relieved to hear that. As for what human nature is, I wrote a blog post this morning regarding that, but due to “special” circumstances, I won’t be able to post it until tomorrow at the earliest. Thanks again for being “reasonable.”

Also: I have a new Cabbage Code for the Pope in the works with a very (remarkably) elegant key, not at all contrived or “calibrated”!

What I object to in the blacklisting of Mr. Card is the message that someone who holds the opinions he does — that is, normal, reasoned, humane opinions which have been taken for granted by nearly everyone for centuries — should be made unemployable. Note that they are not objecting to the Superman story he wrote, which is not in any way an “anti-gay” story. No, they are objecting to the fact that anyone anywhere is giving Mr. Card a job of any kind. In effect, they want to use economic sanctions to force him to recant his supposedly heretical opinions.

Yes, and I’m surprised (you’d think I would learn by now!) to hear that they succeeded. I knew they were trying, but I thought it was just noise.